Taming Dragons
by MidnightAria
Summary: What happens when a dragon handler gets thrown to the wolves... or rather one particular wolf? Due to a meddling Luna Lovegood, Charlie Weasley's about to find out. -begins after DH in HP-verse, but before PB in CoR-
1. Chapter 1

MA: I don't own HP or CoR… if I did baaad things would happen

I think this came from the fact that I wanted to see an odd pairing in this crossover. I've seen so many Harry/Riddick I got kinda tired of it … hmmm… maybe I'll make a challenge…. Eh, we'll see.

Chapter One: Also Known as the Prologue-

Charlie Weasley's day started off normally; he woke up and dragged himself to his small kitchen. After downing two cups of blacker than black coffee he was awake enough to take a long shower, long mostly due to falling asleep under the spray until the water turned cold (being a wizard, lack of warm water normally wasn't an issue, but one of his coworkers charmed a timer into his shower after he had managed to fall asleep for four hours straight under the comforting spray). This time he managed to finish his shower without the timer going off and, feeling a bit more human, he managed to eat some toast for breakfast (due to his nonexistent tolerance to mornings he never really was a breakfast person, something that even his mother, the formidable Molly Weasley, had never managed to correct). After dressing in worn brown dragon-hide pants and a comfortable white tee, he grabbed his wand and well-loved brown dragon-hide jacket, put on his heavy duty dragon-hide boots and headed to work.

The Romanian Dragon Reserve where he worked was an immense stretch of land covering an entire mountain range surrounded by a large stone wall, easily three times as tall as an elephant. Due to the nature of the spells and wards surrounding it muggles often even forgot the wall was there, let alone the mountain range. Every once in a while a muggle living in a village in the foot hills would stop and look at the wall and mountains in surprise, before promptly forgetting about them again. Thankfully not many people lived in the few villages around the mountains. There was a purely magical village near what was considered the "main" entrance where those who worked at the reserve lived and where tourists stayed when visiting. Huge ornately carved gray-stone gates marked the main entrance to the reserve. They stood as tall as the walls and were twice as wide as they were tall. The carvings on the gates were dragons, all kinds of dragons; long snake-like dragons crawling up the posts and the just about every type imaginable twisting and arching around each other on the gates themselves leaving no space un-carved. All the dragons were shown in profile except a large growling lion-ish dragon head that sat dead center. "The Guardian", as they called it, was split in half by the gates opening, its eyes were two massive cut rubies. The mane was streaks of various shades of gold- from pale white, to deep burnished red- giving an unnerving impression of golden fire. His teeth were easily the size of a man and were silver, though the reflection from the mane often made the bared teeth seem soaked in blood. The overall effect was quite intimidating and made quite the attraction for visiting tourists.

Charlie apparated in a large open space near the gates, ropes marking the edges of the clearing- the designated apparation point for both the village and the reserve. A large building was next to the space with a sign designating it the main offices for the reserve. He wove around crowds of people heading to a small side door into the offices. He made it to his designated office and collapsed into one of the two rickety chairs next to a large, old, scarred and battered desk, piled high with books, scrolls of parchment, and pieces of equipment that may or may not have had something to do with handling dragons. The walls of the office were covered in pinned up maps, photos, drawings and random pieces of junk that looked more or less like bits of beads, bones, twigs, string- general odds and ends one might find laying about. Most of the junk on the walls was due to Charlie's shadow- though she termed herself an "investigative reporter" and supposedly she had come to the dragon reserve in search of fantastical beasts, but mostly she followed Charlie around. He would complain, he was a loner by preference- preferring his dragons to people- but she was entertaining without being annoying and she made herself useful, mainly by supplying him with food and deflecting annoying people in her usual strange way.

Charlie sighed, leaning his head back and closing his eyes cursing mornings everywhere to a painful death. A tap on his door and an absolutely heavenly aroma interrupted his irritated thoughts. He cracked his eyes open and managed to drudge up a smile.

"Luna-love if that coffee is for me I'm willing to do anything you want… up to and well past murder and mayhem." Luna Lovegood was Charlie's sister, Ginny's, age, almost nineteen and out of Hogwarts for two years now. She was tall, willowy, blonde and her silver-blue eyes always seemed slightly out of focus. According to his sister and her husband, Harry, as well as his youngest brother, Ron, and his wife, Hermione, Luna really hadn't changed much over the years. Other than her height, just a few inches shy of Charlie's own 6 feet, she still wore outlandish clothing- today was a neon green peasant top with a royal purple frilly knee-length skirt and a pair of paint splattered jeans underneath with tan hiking boots and a black leather zip-up vest completing the ensemble. A haphazardly beaded necklace wrapped around her neck several times and she had switched her normal radish earrings for vaguely flower shaped twists of silver wire with tiny strung crystals, a gift from her boyfriend, Neville Longbottom, for their first year anniversary. Her waist-length hair was in a messy French braid and her wand was tucked behind an ear. Charlie liked her. Not in a romantic sense, her going-on-two-year-boyfriend, despite being peaceful in nature, would kill him and Charlie being on the more gay side of asexual helped- but Luna inspired more sisterly affections from him than even his own sister did.

Luna giggled lightly and handed Charlie the triple espresso in her hand. Placing the box of pastries she had been holding in her other hand on the other chair, she pushed a few things over on the desk- causing an avalanche of dusty books and parchments off the opposite side, which both of them ignored- and plopped herself down on the corner she had just cleared.

"Leave the murder for the ministry and mayhem to the twins, I'll just take your opinion on my lemon ginger squares." She stated with surprising clarity. Charlie had found that most of her spacey demeanor was merely a front to "discourage idiots" as she put it. That didn't mean she couldn't be cryptic, being a seer of sorts did that to a person, though Charlie felt Luna's brand of vague and mysterious was far more effective and entertaining than Trelawny's ever was.

Charlie chuckled and flipped open the box she had brought. In some weird fit of inspiration Luna had taken up baking and was getting pretty dang good, at least to Charlie's taste. He picked out a square and munched on it, washing it down with sips of coffee. Luna waited until he had finished his first and was reaching for a second before pressing.

"Well?" Charlie chuckled and took a large bit out the next one before speaking, his mouth full.

"Luna, they're wonderful, as usual." Crumbs sprayed everywhere, but neither really cared as Luna beamed and he chuckled, swallowing his mouthful.

Charlie knew his family would be shocked at just how close he had become to this strange girl. The only one in his family he ever opened up this much to was his older brother Bill. Since Bill had gotten married and was now expecting his second child, though, Charlie had been feeling an odd gap grow between them.

"So how was your vacation?" Luna questioned, as if reading his mind and referring to the past week. Charlie had managed to gain some time off and spent it at the burrow, catching up with his family, meeting his new nieces and nephews. His youngest siblings had wasted no time in reproducing. Ron and Hermione had a little girl- Rose- and Ginny and Harry had their own little one- James. Add to that the twins had brought home a girl and boyfriend each. Even Percy and his wife, Audrey, had shown up for a dinner or two while Charlie was home.

He sighed. It was almost like he couldn't relate to his own family anymore. He had always been a bit of the oddball of the family to begin with. He took after his mother's side of the family in looks- his hair more copper than the fiery red of his siblings. He never really took time to do anything with his hair either- unlike his brother Bill, who could spend an hour tending to his ponytail- Charlie kept his short more for practicality then style, it was shaggy, not quite straight (like his dad, Bill, the twins, Ron and Ginny's hair) and not quite curly (like his mum and Percy). His eyes were a blue-green rather than the varying shades of brown and the only ones in his family shorter than him were his mother and baby sister, something Bill and the twins never let him live down. His height had served him well in Quidditch, and didn't seem to matter so much in dealing with dragons, but being able to see over a crowd every once in a while would be nice. When he had visited his family this past week, it had been strange. The room he had shared with Bill was now his alone, Bill and Fleur taking the twins room since were staying overnight and the twins could just floo from their flat in Diagon Alley. He had been the only single person there, conversations with anyone- other than the twins- wound up centered on the children. Now Charlie liked kids, but he had nothing to relate to, like the other new parents seemed to. He wound up chatting with the twins most of the time while he was there.

"Uh oh. That's not a happy sigh." Luna stated. She patted Charlie's short, tousled copper hair. "Did the Bi'xi Bo'di's decide to nest in Molly's hair again?" Charlie eyed her curiously, but didn't question her. He leaned back, toying with the now empty coffee cup in his hands.

"It was just the usual, asking when I'd find a nice girl to settle down with… give her grand kids… you know…"

"I do." Charlie didn't ask how she knew. Knowing Luna, she just did. They sat in silence for a few moments.

"Did you know Ginny's cheating on Harry?" Luna selected a square for herself, leaning over precariously from the desk.

"Oh?" Charlie wasn't really surprised, he knew his sister. Once she had what she wanted she started after something, or in this case someone, else.

Luna nodded. "But, don't feel bad for Harry… he's seeing someone too." That got an eyebrow raise, Harry always seemed the type to be loyal until the end.

"Oh?" Luna smiled at his tone.

"Yup." She popped the "p". "Draco talked him into it."

"Draco... Malfoy?" Charlie chuckled "My little-bro-in-law is trying the other side of the fence?"

Luna nodded. "I think he was always oriented more in that direction, but didn't want to disappoint your family. They'll be getting a divorce after the third child… Ginny is going to walk in on them."

"And lemme guess, it'll be all Harry's fault."

"Actually not. Ginny'll come clean too and by then Molly will be more worried about the mess Ron and Hermione will have, Harry and Ginny's separation will almost not even be noticed." Charlie shook his head. Ron and Hermione seemed to be stuck in permanent honeymoon mode, he had been sure they'd be like his mum and dad.

"And mum wonders why I prefer my dragons. Human's are just so fickle… when a dragon finds their mate they stick with them until death." Charlie had often wished for a relationship like that… granted dragons had it a little easier than humans, there were less of them to choose from and even then they battled over their mate-to-be, had to prove themselves to be the best before even thinking of mating. He sighed before draining the rest of his coffee. Luna had a distant look on her face, like she was listening to something just barely within hearing.

Charlie dropped his cup in shock when Luna suddenly jumped off the desk. Grabbing his arm she pulled him out of the office toward the employee entrance to the reserve. "Come on, follow me, it's time for work." Charlie just grinned and let the odd blonde drag him along, ignoring the bemused and curious glances from his coworkers.

The employee's entrance was actually more fun to traverse than the main gate- which got old after seeing it all the time after a while- at least it was, in Charlie's opinion. The employees entrance was a staircase that went underground, then an extremely long tunnel, roughly hewn into the rocky terrain with roots of trees and plants, as well as rocks sticking out, all threatening to trip a person up or knock against the heads of the unwary, it climbed up the mountain a good way before ending at a wooden- rather rickety looking- circular staircase that opened out at the base of one of the many huge trees in the reserve. The long walk of the tunnel was one of the reasons most of the Dragon handlers were so fit- there was no apparition into the reserve for safety reasons- Charlie himself had lost several pounds just from the walk alone when he had first arrived and he had already been quite active before becoming a handler- what with quidditch and running after all his siblings. Surprisingly… or unsurprisingly depending on who you were… Luna had no problems with the long walks. The opening from the base of the tree opened up in a large rocky clearing. There were charms that discouraged the dragons and some of the more violent creatures living in the reserve from entering the area.

Luna pulled him from the clearing and went on one of the lesser used paths that wound up the side of either a very steep hill, or a not-so-steep cliff. At the top the path ran around trees and eventually stopped at the edge of a cliff. A small stream created a waterfall that dropped roughly thirty feet before ending in a small pool. The pool attracted some of the lesser dragons- small snake-like wyrms, a few of the rare feathered winged dragons and of course the typical fire lizards (which looked a lot like a very small Welsh Green, but in a wider variety of colors). Though most of the smaller dragons were often the more poisonous, they were also often the more friendly of the dragon families and as Charlie and Luna sat on a couple of the larger rocks laying around at the top of the cliff several of the braver dragons came to investigate. Luna, sitting cross-legged held out a hand that was mostly ignored, Charlie sitting with his legs stretched out, batting a curious Fire Lizard away from his hair, before the little one thought it would make a good nest- the little lizards seemed to love trying to nest in his hair, he had no idea why, but Luna thought it was hilarious. The dragons quickly got bored with them and started mock battles in the air, entertaining the two humans. As Charlie chuckled at one brave little opal colored Wyrms who kept dive bombing a larger gold feathered serpent, Luna asked him a question.

"How do feel about pack predators?" Charlie leaned back on his hands to better follow the mock battle above them.

"What do you mean?"

"Well… specifically wolves?" Charlie looked at her out of the corner of his eye, she was having what looked to be a staring contest with a little red and blue feathered dragon, with four vibrant green eyes.

"Well… I'm not sure… I admire the loyalty they show pack members. The cunning they show when hunting, the ability to bring down game much larger then themselves. They aren't quite as impressive as dragons, but then what is?" He shrugged. Luna smiled, the little dragon blinking a set of eyes, the contest didn't end so Charlie wondered if Luna was trying to get it to blink all four eyes at once.

"I'm afraid I haven't been able to find any dragons in human guise, would a wolf be disappointing?"

"I suppose not. Do you mean a werewolf?" Charlie had met Remus Lupin before he'd died, a nice man, but Charlie could tell he kept the wolf caged- wolfsbane may have kept him docile, but it killed the wolf and thus part of the man's soul. Charlie had always wondered what would've happened had he embraced his condition instead.

"No. This one does not change skin. The wolf's far away. It'd take an adventure to reach him." Luna leaned forward until her nose touched the dragon's. "Change will happen. Time will pass. Suns will shine on an endless desert. Darkening skies will wake the guardian- but death will come in its confusion. Light will reveal the bones, and after an ageless time the wolves will come with the sheep." It was said in an almost sing-song tone, one Charlie associated with Luna's sight. When it was over the silence was deafening, even the little dragons had stopped their play and were hovering around silently. Luna and the dragon turned heads simultaneously and looked at Charlie, Luna's eyes shimmering silver, the dragons glowing green. Charlie couldn't look away, he could feel power surrounding them and wondered what was happening.

"Would you like to go on an adventure Charlie?" Luna was still speaking with a sing-song lilt in her voice.

"Wha…"

And the world went black.

When Charlie woke it was hot, too hot, and he was in a lot of pain. Not sharp pain, just an all over dull ache, something he could work through if he had to, but would rather sleep through if possible. In fact sleep seemed like a wonderful idea.

As he drifted out of consciousness again he thought he heard the murmuring of voices coming toward him, but was too far gone to care.

END OF CHAPTER ONE: ALSO KNOWN AS THE PROLOGUE

MA: I love Luna, her style especially :P. Poor Charlie getting thrown through time and space. REVIEWS MAKE THE CREATIVE PROCESS GO FASTER!

BTW- I'm screwing with timelines, relationships and anything else I find that I wanna… you can complain all you want, but it won't change anything.

ALSO- I refuse to acknowledge a particular death in the HP world, in my mind it never happened- it was a bad dream- and so, although the HP universe has been relatively untouched by my artistic license, there is an extra person.


	2. Chapter 2

MA: erm… Hi! Yes I live… sorta… more updates coming soon (sooner than this one was promise! .) Thanks so much everyone who reviewed and to those who are stalking me ^.^!

Chapter Two: Just to Confuse Everyone-

Charlie straightened up from where he was bent over the small hole he had drilled into the base of one of the many earthen spires that seemed to litter the landscape of the hellish planet… err moon rather… he was on. He rolled his shoulders to get the stiffness out while looking toward the bluer of the three suns. He had apparently landed on the moon of a planet in a triple sun system- a binary pair orbiting a third along with several planets and the moon he was on. Not something he completely understood, but the model he was shown was quite fascinating, his father would definitely love to play with it.

"Almost lunchtime," he muttered to himself. He carefully disassembled the drill he had been using and placed the pieces back in their padded case before closing the case and swinging the case's strap over one shoulder while picking up another nearby case and strolled the twenty minute walk back to the settlement. It had been roughly six months since Charlie had landed in this barren place. He had apparently been lucky in that he was found by some of the geologists who were scouting this sector. The corporation they worked with had wanted to mine the planet, dubbed Chronos, but it's toxic atmosphere and unstable terrain made long term mining impossible- at least if they had to stay on the surface of the planet, or even in long term man-made orbit. They sent an exploration team to Chronos' moon, Hades, to see if there were any minable resources and/or if it was a suitable place to set up a colony for atmospheric mining of Chronos.

Charlie had woken up being examined by the doctor of the outfit, Rachael Singes- she was also the wife of the head geologist, Thomas Singes. After waking up some- he found that the coffee bean had been extinct for thousands of years now, but the replacement for the popular morning caffeine actually wasn't bad and was twice as effective- he found out exactly where he had landed. They had found him in the shadows of the spires- this had been both a blessing and a curse, as being in the shadows prevented exposure to the unforgiving suns, but risked the chance of the creatures that lived below the surface getting to him. The creatures- termed bio-raptors by the geologists… demons by the unfortunate guy- now the cook of the outfit- who had had a leg gnawed off before help had reached him. The bio-raptors fascinated Charlie. A creature that was deathly allergic to light- any light, not just the sun- it seemed to communicate and see in the same way a bat would, with echo-location, and had a better sense of smell than a canine, an amazing predator.

After the initial freak-out he had after fully realizing that not only was he on another planet, he was in the far, faaaar future, Charlie had settled down to the life with the two-dozen-ish peoples currently living on Hades pretty easily. He missed his long showers- what with water being a precious commodity- but, he had always liked the outdoors and hated not being useful. Everyone in the camp had something useful to contribute, there were the geologists of course, but then there was a doctor, a cook (albeit forced from active duty), a couple engineers and builders, a man who specialized in solar-power… even the children- of which there were four; a four, six, ten and thirteen year-old- helped with easy daily chores-sorting, cleaning, fetching, carrying, etc. It took a while for Charlie to fill a niche- especially since he wasn't quite trusted- he found it after talking a while with Rachael.

They had been discussing wizardry actually. Although the wizarding world had eventually been forced to the open, it had been received like any other culture of Earth was at first- suspicion and fear, then eventually grudging acceptance until it was just another "thing" about a person, this of course taking more than a few years and was accepted much easier with the introduction of long space journeys and introductions to aliens- and now wizarding blood was widespread throughout the human race. The abilities rarely showed up anymore beyond an occasional enhanced senses, or sensitivity to nature, occasionally there was someone who had powers a bit more akin to the wizards of old, but even then their abilities were just above squib level. Hogwarts was long forgotten, and most of the famous wizards and events of the past were now mere ancient legends found in dusty, old tomes in boring museums. Charlie's being a full-blooded wizard had shocked and then intrigued the doctor, she admitted that if she had had the resources she would have asked to examine him more thoroughly, Charlie had sighed in relief at the fact that her current lab was mediocre at best- he really didn't want to be a lab rat. Rachael had understood his hesitance to be poked and prodded and had mentioned that Charlie was probably better off not being too open about his status as a FULL wizard, keeping his show of powers to a minimum as well. Most of the people in the settlement were nice people, but others might find his ancient DNA a bit too intriguing to pass up and the pay-off for handing someone like him off to some institute for "study" would be enough to live well for the rest of a person's life. He had agreed and was quick to mention his magical knowledge and abilities weren't the greatest anyway, it had been a small part of the reason he had chosen to study magical predators, particularly dragons. Rachael had been quick to make the suggestion that since they lacked a zoologist on the team, maybe Charlie could fill the roll and study the bio-raptors of Hades- maybe even try and figure out what the huge bones that littered the nearby canyon were from. Charlie's curiosity had been peaked and when the two of them had brought the idea to Rachael's husband, he had the typical scientists curiosity, but added the condition that if it appeared to be too dangerous or in the end harmful to anyone, it would be stopped.

It was clear the man didn't trust Charlie, Charlie and Rachael had yet to concoct a decent story as to how he had gotten to Hades, there had been no ships by the moon since the last supply four months ago and things like matter-transporters or teleporters only worked short-range and were rare enough as it was. Right now Charlie's story was a jumbled mess of "classified top-secret government work which may or may not have something to do with a new sort of method of transportation and the whole thing went south and sent Charlie somewhere else completely" which was half believed at best. Thomas trusted his wife though, and so, rather grudgingly, allowed Charlie to stay- with the proviso that he make himself useful… something Charlie understood and wanted to do even without the urging. When the rest of the crew found that Charlie would be willing to get close to the spires they had "volunteered" him to get samples from the areas surrounding them. Other than ask Charlie for the newest samples or for assistance with heavy lifting, or other tedious chores the others basically left him alone. Rachael and the unlucky guy with the half-eaten leg who went by the name, Chuck, were the only two willing to sit and talk with him and Charlie was sure Chuck only did so out of boredom most of the time. The children liked him well enough, when their parents let them near him- or in the case of Kim, the oldest, snuck out to hang out with him- they found him a kind and patient person to be with- something that being the second eldest of seven had helped develop in him.

Charlie rolled his stiff shoulders as he walked and thought, a headache had been building for a day or two now, Rachael had given him painkillers, but they really hadn't dulled the pain. He had also noticed a tense-ness from Rachael and some of the others as well. She hadn't mentioned anything to him so he wondered if it had something to do with the project, maybe the moon wasn't worth the time, money and effort like the group had originally thought… or he had heard Chuck muttering about supplies the other day... a lack of non-replenishing supplies would be detrimental.

A sharp pain behind his eyes had Charlie closing his eyes, hissing in pain as his free hand pressed against his face. He stopped, waiting for it to pass.

"That's it I'm having Rachael check me over completely when I get back." He muttered to himself as the pain slowly faded. He opened his eyes, blinking a few times as he noticed the dirt at his feet was dimmer than normal. Realizing that the light was dimming and it wasn't his sight going as he had first thought, he looked up and gaped in shock. The rings of Chronos were swiftly rising, the planet covering the suns light completely.

"Well, shit…" Was all he manage before he fell to the sands, his head feeling like it was splitting down the center, blood red color filling his vision before black took hold.

Charlie lay convulsing, while roughly fifteen minutes walk away, in the settlement, Rachael argued with her husband as he ushered everyone into the coring room. Chains and locks in one hand, ready to lock everyone in. Safe… or so they all believed. Rachael wanted to wait for the newcomer, the one that he had honestly never had fully trusted- someone who had sent his hairs on end, and he had learned a while ago to trust his instincts. He none-too-gently shoved his wife into the coring room, ignoring her shouts and yelling at leaving the man- an outsider, an unknown- out to be eaten by the demons, while he locked the door. Thomas knew that as much as she yelled, his wife would never risk the others by unlocking the doors and letting in the dark. He would be on the outs with her for a good long while for this, but she would with time forgive him and his actions. Or so he believed. It wasn't until the darkness was complete that they would all realize their mistakes… and pay for them.

Charlie awoke stiff, but in less pain than he had been in a while- as if his head splitting open was all that was needed to relieve the pain and tension in his body. He slowly stood giving his body a shake, stretching his neck, tail and wings. He noticed an odd pressure coming from his tail. Turning, his red tinted vision revealed a juvenile bio-raptor trying to gnaw through the tougher-than-rock scales. He shook his head and growled loudly, the little one looked up and hissed at him. Charlie, angered at the show of defiance, let out a loud roar that sent the juvenile skittering away. An answering hissing roar from a distance away drew Charlie's attention away from the retreating creature, he spread his large wings and leapt into the thin air relishing in the way the atmosphere cut over his body. Another loud roar from him had the smaller flying raptors rushing out of his way, a few brave ones attempting to nip at his wings and sides. He took care of an exceptionally pesky flyer that had attempted to take out one of his eyes, by twisting his head around and chomping the small creature between his large, sharp teeth. Yum, dinner. The slick blue blood slid down his throat setting off an urge to hunt and fill his belly. He twisted in the air and chased down a dozen or more flyers, before spotting larger prey closer to the ground, diving and tearing into the back of one of the largest bio-raptors he had seen. He had managed to break the creature's neck as they hit the ground, he crowed in triumph before tearing into his meal. Sensing others closing in on his catch he looked up and hissed at the large group circling him. Anger built in him as their hunger made them brave, some of them running in only to flit away as he snapped at them. One of the larger, meaner ones managed to latch onto Charlie's leg, attacking him instead of trying for the meal at his feet. Charlie snapped, he took a large gulp of air, a strange whooshing feeling in an area near his lungs, and released his breath in a roar. The area lit up with flames, the raptors screeching as their bodies were burnt to crisps, both the ones touched by the flames and those touched by the light of the flames. Mass panic hit the creatures and they fled, their hunger temporarily forgotten for fear. Charlie snorted in a smug triumph before settling to enjoy his meal at leisure.

Time passed, though Charlie scarcely noticed, his mind firmly entrenched in the draconian instincts. He flew, hunted and slept. For his dragon mind, it was enough, not quite paradise- lack of a mate and hatchlings were a bit worrisome- but he was content for the moment and so life continued. The bio-raptors gave him a wide berth once they realized his tendency to create deadly light when annoyed and his appetite rivaled that of a full nest- about two to three hundred raptors- when hungry. Charlie didn't really wonder what had happened to the "others" he had lived among, he had thought of the hatchlings a time or two, but as they weren't his it wasn't a pressing concern. He had claimed a stretch of about fifty square miles around the settlement, but stuck mostly to a large cave he had hallowed out of a cliff-face about twenty miles away from it.

It was about three months later. Charlie had just taken down his latest meal just inside of the settlement, when the urge to curl up and sleep caught him by surprise. He yawned revealing a large mouth full of deadly, blue stained teeth, and blinking found a soft-ish pile of sand to curl up in and doze. He awoke a short time later to light seeping in through his eyelids. Charlie blinked owlishly, sitting upright wondering how he'd gotten on top of a sand dune just outside the settlement. The two suns in the sky telling him it was rather early in what he had come to consider "morning". He scratched his head wincing as sand caught in his hair fell into his eyes. He stood and stumbled back to the settlement to find his morning caffeine.

As he entered, the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. It was far too quiet; there was no clink of machinery, no clattering of equipment, no chatter, nothing. Charlie rounded a corner and stopped dead. His memories slammed into him at the sight of a charred, partially eaten carcass of a bio-raptor lying in the middle of the settlement. The pain, passing out and then waking up as something…

A dragon! Charlie thought in amazement. I was a dragon!

His legs wobbled a bit in shock, Charlie went to lean on a nearby building. Light glinting from near his feet had him glancing down on a piece of busted solar panel. The reflection had him gasping in shock a grabbing the piece out of the sand. He held it up reflecting his face at him. He really didn't look too different than usual. His hair was still a coppery red, still wavy, though it was a bit wilder and much longer for not having been cut for several months. He was still freckled with a light tan, but there were small, faint reddish-gold scales along his hairline, following the brow bone, running up his cheekbones and following along his jaw to his neck- they weren't horribly noticeable with all of his freckles and slight tan, unless the light caught them right. He ran his fingers along a patch on his cheek and shivered, they were a bit sensitive. The tips of his ears pointed slightly and also had a smattering of scales on them. His once blue-green eyes now had a ring of red on the edge of the iris, turning his eyes an interesting shade of violet. The most noticeable thing, though, was his pupils were now slit, like a serpents. Out of curiosity he opened his mouth and sighed to himself- his tongue was still normal- but started when he noticed something. He bared his teeth, his canines were a bit large, longer and sharper then they had been before.

"Shit!" Charlie almost bit his own tongue at the discovery. He appeared to be turning into… or was already… some sort of dragon/human hybrid.

-END CHAPTER 2-

MA- For those who are confused: Charlie turns completely into a dragon at the eclipse (there will be more on this in later chappys) his instincts as a dragon have taken over most of his thinking, which is why he may seem different during that time. There is a reason he hasn't gone back to being completely human at the end so just hang out 'til next chapter. ^.^

Reviews are wonderful, so please clicky the button and lemme know how I'm doing (even if it's just to bug me about my horrid update schedules .)


	3. Chapter 3

MA- I live?... OMG I LIVE!... ahem... so here's the next Chapter. I named it after the fact that just about every Riddick fic I have read has that bit that Riddick says in the beginning and I am no different ... oh well, it had to happen ^.^. I remind you guys this is rather AU so if the timeline seems screwy... well it probably is.

Enjoy!

Chapter Three: We Meet… Again? (Also known as the copy, cut and paste chapter)

In a long passenger/cargo ship cruising through deep space, in a row of cryo-pods, sat one particular pod. There was really nothing different about the pod other than the fact that it had an external code lock and large warning signs against opening said pod plastered to the glass. Inside was a man. A rather muscular man with a shaved head and mocha skin, dressed in a dark pair of cargo pants, a pair of sturdy boots and a black tank-top. His eyes were covered by a blindfold, there was a bit in his mouth and his hands were chained. The only sign of movement was the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. One might think that he was in the induced sleep of the other passengers but they would be wrong. His body was relaxed, in a state of rest, but his mind wandered, passing time in the depths of space.

XO-OX

They say most of your brain shuts down in cryo-sleep... all but the primitive side... the animal side... no wonder I'm still awake. Transporting me with civilians, sounded like forty, forty-plus. Heard an Arab voice, some hoodoo holy man, probably on his way to New Mecca… but what route? What route? Smelled a women; sweat, boots, tool belt, leather, prospector type. Three settlers and they only take the back roads. But here's my real problem... Mr. Johns… blue eyed devil. Planning on taking me back to slam, only this time he picked a ghost lane. Long time between stops. Long time for something to go wrong.

As if Riddick's thought had jump-started Murphy's Law, something went wrong. Asteroids, comet, hurtling space debris, it didn't matter really, as the metallic pinging of the pieces piercing the hull and ricocheting around the interior of the ship echoed loudly in the sleep induced quiet. A dozen or so of the pods were breached, killing or severely injuring those inside, the Captain of the ship was one. The alarms started during this and the rest of the ship's crew was forced awake. The navigator, a petit blonde woman by the name of Carolyn Fry, woke in time to see the Captain's death in the pod across from her. The shock of his death paralyzing to both her body and mind, leading to her falling ungracefully out of her pod as it hissed open. Her fellow crew member, a man named of Greg Owens, fell on her. Carolyn was numb as she repeated the Captains death both in her mind and voice, ignoring the almost hysterical comments from Owens about falling and gravity not supposed to be in effect yet as he rose shakily. After the disorientation of Cryo-sleep wore off, the two remaining crew scrambled to their stations. Carolyn, praying they were still on the shipping lanes, opened the shutters of the cockpit- and found herself staring into the dusty brown atmosphere of a planet.

XO-Planetside-OX

Charlie stared up at the sky, almost unbelieving, at the ship hurtling across the sky, black smoke trailing behind it giving it the appearance of a malevolent comet. Merlin only knew how long he'd been stuck on this rock with nothing but the raptors. Tracing the trajectory with his eyes, he saw that the ship would land rather close to the settlement. He nodded to himself and went to the medical building to get the emergency supplies before trekking to the downed ship and hopefully survivors.

XO-Back to the Ship-OX

The ship plowing into the planet's surface had rattled Carolyn. She sat strapped in her chair for a few moments before scrambling out of the straps holding her in her chair to go in search of Owens and the other possible survivors… that is the ones that had made it through her mad purging to level the ship for a better landing. The remaining unit, the one Owens had prevented her from disconnecting, had twenty pods tops. Fifteen had been filled; three of those had been her, Owens and the captain. Given the captain was now dead that left a possible twelve survivors, fourteen with her and Owens. Given they had left with forty-three passengers, that would not look good on her spotless record. Being one of two, or heck even the only survivor, would have been easier to manipulate in her favor as being an unavoidable, yet miraculous survival/accident. Now, however… she needed to figure out where she was… what to do… she needed to find who had survived… she needed to find Owens. She quickened her steps to where she could hear the sounds of the others.

XO-Charlie-OX

Charlie stood on the ridge watching the survivors, having been devoid of human contact for so long their interactions seemed… unnecessarily complicated. The strong posed and pretended and the weak gathered under their dubious protection unquestioningly. The exception to this was the dark man that had escaped. His instincts seemed more appropriate to Charlie's mindset- survive… whatever the cost. He shrugged and started down the ridge, when he got close enough he called out.

"Heya."

The survivors looked up at his hail in confusion and suspicion- thankfully he had approached the ones without the guns. The female prospector, the holy man and the children were wary, but trusting. He knew he had to look strange, so freckled he looked darkly tanned, his copper hair made fiery with the constant glare of the sun bleaching streaks in it, his thin, but muscled build easily seeable through the dragon hide pants and well worn shirt. He shifted the bag of supplies over one shoulder and stopped at what could be considered a safe distance.

"Who're you? Are you a survivor too?" The girl pretending to be a boy asked with obvious curiosity. Charlie grinned.

"Nope. I'm from this hellhole of a planet. Granted, not entirely willing, but not much to be done about that." He replied cheerfully. His voice was rather husky from years of infrequent use.

"You… live here?" The woman seemed incredulous.

"Well… not here, here." Charlie waved a hand carelessly over his shoulder. "I live over yonder at the settlement." They all seemed to brighten at that.

"Ah! So there is civilization on this planet." The father-figure exclaimed happily. Charlie huffed a bit, dragging a hand through his hair.

"Erm… not so much anymore." He looked to the sky thoughtful, "Though honestly civilization wasn't really what I'd call it. Not since I was left in the dark a while back… but whatever…" The adults looked baffled at his babble. "At any rate there's water and some food… oh!" He held up his bag, "I brought medical stuff in case anyone needs it." The youngest kid giggled quietly before covering it up with his hands, the girl just grinned. At least he entertained the kiddys. It made him miss his own family, as well as the nestlings from the scientists group just a bit.

"Who the hell are you?" The question was accompanied by a loud ratchet of a gun being cocked. Charlie turned serious, his eyes flickering over his shoulder as he held down the loud growl that wanted to escape his throat.

"I'd get that gun pointed offa my back real quick if you know what's healthy for you." A snort.

"Yeah and whatta ya gonna do about it." This was followed by a hard nudge from the barrel of said gun. Quicker than most of their eyes could follow Charlie had spun around, pulling the gun's barrel down and away from him, while sending the heel of his boot into the nose of the blue-eyed blonde who resembled more a weasel than wolf in Charlie's mind, making him lose his grip on the gun and sending him crashing to the ground. A loud cry from the petit female following him had him rolling his eyes.

"What the hell! He was only protecting us!" She shoved her way between them, supposedly protecting the bleeding man on the ground behind her. He leaned forward, eye to eye with the annoyingly shrill female, and growled- staring her down. Her eyes widened in fear before she averted her gaze unconsciously bearing her throat a bit. "Y-your eyes!... W-w-what are you?" He chuckled darkly, enjoying her unspoken admittance of submission, stepping back.

"I'm human… ish." The girl/boy, stepped up next to him looking at his face to get a good look at his eyes, he obliged her by staring down and grinning wolfishly, knowing his sharp canines showed.

"Coooool!" She exclaimed. Their attention turned to the holy man when he cleared his throat.

"Umm… this man…"

"Charlie." Charlie helped him out by providing a name. The man smiled, if a bit wryly, at him.

"Imam, it's a pleasure." Charlie nodded ignoring the hint of sarcasm. "Charlie says there is a settlement with food and water nearby."

"Tch." The man who had threatened him was climbing to his feet, clutching an obviously broken nose. "And of course you just believe him. He attacks me unprovoked and now he's trustworthy." Imam looked as if he wanted to respond, but seemed to bite his tongue.

"If that was unprovoked what's provoked in your book Johns? A stomach full of lead? The man told you to back off." The first woman stated, sounding none too impressed by her fellow survivor. "Plus he brought medical supplies, why'd he do that if he was just gonna off us?" She pointed out logically.

John's just snorted again. "Whatever."

Charlie grinned, knowing he'd won. He led the way to the settlement, the woman's, Shazza's, husband, Zeke- as they'd introduced themselves- had stayed behind, along with Paris, in case of other survivors and to start digging graves for those who hadn't survived. Charlie thought the graves to be a waste of time, he also didn't see the chicken-shit Paris lifting a finger either, but chose not to voice his opinion on the matter.

Most of the buildings in the settlement were now abandoned- being one person he really had no use for all the shelters and so let them fall to disrepair, stealing bits and bobs from them to repair the few buildings he did use. He lead them through to the building with the water collector, along with anything edible he'd managed to scavenge- mostly ration bars and dehydrated foods, not a five course meal, but it would keep people from starving. The rest of the group had been looking around curiously at the other buildings. As they grabbed a quick drink before further explorations, Fry, as she had named herself during the late introductions, asked him.

"Who lived here? Where did they go?... You're really the only one left?" Charlie coughed to cover a giggle before answering, the rest crowding closer to hear his answer, even Johns- although he pretended not to.

"They were scientists, mostly geologists, and their families." Charlie told the curious group. "They were a scouting party, so to speak, for a large mining company. Considering the company hasn't sent anyone to check on them, it's a good bet they've been forgotten. The planet this moon orbits is a good mining candidate, but the system wasn't stable enough- or something like that, for a long term mining operation. They were hoping the moons would offer something, but other than too much sun and death, there really wasn't anything of much value here."

"sun and death? So everyone else… died?" the little girl, Jack she was insisting on being called, questioned with fearful hesitation. Charlie opened his mouth to answer, when a loud bang echoed through the settlement. It probably wasn't so loud to the others, but the noise caught everyone's attention. Shazza was first to react.

"Shit Zeke!" She took off running back to the ship. The rest of the group followed with Charlie trailing toward the end of the line. He stopped as he realized "Jack" hadn't moved. He offered his hand.

"Come on girlie." She looked up startled and wide-eyed at that, "Don't worry, I'll protect you from the monsters. Nestlings shouldn't have to fight after all." Jack seemed a little bit amused to be called a nestling, but took his hand anyways and the two strolled back over to the ship. Charlie pointing out the spires and bones and explaining to Jack what he knew about both. She seemed eager to learn and was asking a bunch of questions, some Charlie couldn't answer, but instead of lying to her he just told her so.

"So if the big elephant creatures didn't die naturally what did kill them off?" She questioned when they were halfway through the bone-yard. Charlie stopped and pulling her gently toward a large rib bone, pointing to a series of deep gouges.

"According to what I know, what killed the scientist is also what killed these animals. It's been a couple hundred years since these beasts died, at least according to the dating the scientists had come up with before, but these marks are all over the bones and there are only a few creatures on this hell-hole planet that make marks like these." Jack covered her mouth to stifle her giggle at his cursing, but listened with the horrified curiosity only children can show.

"So… if the same thing killed the scientist… it killed the rest of their families too right?" Charlie nodded, "But their bones are left right? I mean, they didn't eat these big bones so they wouldn't eat the others bones either." Charlie chuckled, pulling her by the hand away from the large bones and back down the path to the ship.

"You are a smart little thing aren't you?" Jack preened, but still pressed.

"Well?" Charlie huffed a bit, but relented.

"Yes, there are bones. I'll show you their grave when we get back to the settlement…" He looked up at the suns in the sky thoughtfully, "We don't have much time. You guys really had shitty timing to land here now." Jack raised an eyebrow, but didn't question anything as they came in sight of the ship.

A male scream had Charlie's head up, eyes scanning for danger. Jack pressing into his side showed she had heard it too.

"W-what was that?"

He patted her head, still listening. The scream had died and now there was a bunch of yelling.

"Shazza." He murmured.

"Shazza!" Jack shouted, causing Charlie to wince. "Is she okay?" Charlie placed a hand over her mouth, she shut up.

"Come on." He pulled her in the direction of the shouting, off to the side of the ship and over a hill. Reaching the top of the hill he saw the dark man, unconscious on the ground, Johns placing cuffs around the man's wrists, and Shazza being held back by Imam and Fry. Shazza had stopped shouting and was now bawling. As Charlie drew near, Jack ran up and hugged Shazza around the waist, the woman clung to the little girl in her sorrow. Fry and Imam let her go, realizing she wouldn't run off again. Charlie drew up next to the group.

"What happened?" He queried. Fry responded.

"Zeke had accidently shot another survivor, thinking it was Riddick. That's what the gunshot was about. He had dragged the body out here to bury, but Riddick got him. We found him standing over the grave were Zeke had been digging. We managed to knock Riddick out. That's pretty much when you got here." Charlie nodded, peering over their heads towards the grave.

"Where's the body?" He could smell fresh blood, but not enough for there to be a body nearby. The smell of the raptors, though, was stronger than normal- the raptors smell was everywhere normally, but it got stronger if they were on the surface. He had a strong feeling Riddick had nothing to do with this death.

Fry shook his head. "We don't know. Maybe Riddick hid it?" She shrugged, looking up at Charlie- she was a few inches shorter than him, much to his relief… Shazza on the other hand was almost his height; it was rather depressing for him, being so short sometimes.

He raised an eyebrow at Fry, "I don't think it was Riddick. He doesn't seem the type to hide bodies." She winced a bit before demanding angrily.

"Well if you don't think it was Riddick, who was it!"

"What. Not who." Fry looked taken aback.

"What?"

"Exactly." Charlie grinned wryly and Jack shuddered in Shazza's grip. Imam and Shazza were looking in confusion at Charlie.

"What? So if not Riddick… What killed me Zeke?" Shazza's accent was thicker in her grief.

"There is life on this hell-hole." Charlie started, "If you know how to survive here it's not hard, there are plants… water… shelter from the sun. It's when the lights go out that you need to worry about."

Fry snorted. "With three suns, I think lights out would be unlikely."

Charlie gave her a look and she shut her mouth. "You'd think. Then you'd be like the scientists, their husbands, wives and children, all stuck in the dark with no escape. Like the giants who left those bones. Ripped to shreds by starving animals… animals that thrive in the dark. They live underground until their six months of freedom above allows them to ravage the desert landscape and destroy everything in their search for food." He smiled, it was an ironic… possibly a slightly insane smile. "And lucky you, you got here mere hours before the dark closes in."

The adults inhaled sharply. Imam questioned nervously.

"What do you mean darkness? Like night?" Charlie shook his head.

"There is no night here… just the eclipses." Fry was breathing deeply, probably trying not to hyperventilate.

"We've got to get to the others. Tell Johns… figure out what to do." Charlie nodded and headed over towards the ship, followed by the others.

XO-With Riddick-OX

Riddick was now chained to a beam –again-, sitting down this time, with no convenient broken beam or torch to help escape. He wasn't too worried about escape now though. He had worse things to worry about. During his first escape he had explored a bit, found out some interesting facts. The small bit about Caroline not truly the captain, the fact if she had had her way they would all be dead, was interesting and something he could use later. The biggest discovery, though, was the large elephantine bones, picked clean- not by time or weather, but by the teeth of carnivores. The bones were old, the lack of smell told Riddick this, hundreds if not thousands of years, but even time hadn't worn down the sharp teeth marks scaring the surfaces and the rustling sounds, the sounds of extreme hunger from beneath the surface, that had Riddick edgy. He shifted in his bonds, the blindfold a relief for his eyes after being blinded by the sun, a small hole providing a bit of vision for him. He could feel the bruising on his ribs and the concussion from the kick to the head, they were healing, but still gave twinges of pain. He should have been able to fight back, but had been too distracted by the teeth and claws that had dragged the man –Zeke- down the hole.

Knew I shouldn't have gotten so close. This planet has thrown my game off, the heat, the lesser oxygen. Needed a decent weapon though, knew there was something below the surface- something meaner… scarier than me. No reasoning with it. It finds you, attacks you, kills you before you kill it. I don't want to admit it, but whatever's down there scares the shit outta me- not that anyone can tell, first rule in the jungle; don't show fear. Not the sight, scent or sound of it unless you want to be torn to pieces.

Riddick leaned back, inhaling and exhaling slowly getting as much oxygen into his blood and muscles as he could, helping adjust his body to this world. He waited, listening. Less than half an ear to the group outside, most likely still deciding his fate, and the rest of an ear to the planet, hearing the changes in the rustlings, something was coming.

End CH 3!

MA: Wee! Another chappy! Yay *throws confetti* I have another chapter or two I'll be posting soon… I want to say in the next couple days, but last time I said that it wound up being a couple months X.x.

Anywayz =P… (like I said in the beginning) I know some of the timeline is a bit screwy, but this is rather AU so don't let it bother you too much. The POV changes kept getting screwy so I split them up differently- I really don't like doing it that way, but mostly it was just cause of all the POV changes. The next couple of Chapters won't have as many shifts so will be easier for me to deal with.

And, like always, please Read and Review ^.^


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